It would be wrong to say that Pokemon Platinum was just a version of Diamond and Pearl without the flaws. Platinum adds and changes so much so that not only does it fix all of Diamond and Pearl’s issues, but it helps create such a perfect experience. No doubt about it, I believe that Platinum is the perfect Sinnoh experience compared to the options out there. When I was a kid, I never had an English copy of Platinum, I grew up with a Japanese copy. Luckily though, I had enough information in order to properly play it, even though I never understood what any of the text meant. This is one of the few times I ever played Platinum in English, and the first time I ever beat it in English as well. I’m really glad I finally got around to playing Platinum again after all this time.
Of course it’s obvious to note that Platinum builds upon Diamond and Pearl, so there aren’t really any mechanical changes to note. However, Generation 4 is at a point in the series where general Pokemon game is already extremely polished, so no change really needs to be made. However, there were some slight tweaks with Platinum that greatly improve playing through Sinnoh. First thing to note is how the general speed of the game has improved. Health bars go down faster, and surfing speed is increased, and just those two things solve the two notable slow parts of the game. There’s also of course other minor tweaks here and there, but aren’t too notable to bring up.
One of the greatest changes with Platinum in comparison to Diamond and Pearl is the Sinnoh Dex. Platinum adds basically 60 pokemon to Sinnoh, which solves more problems than it sounds. To begin, it solves the Fire Type Pokemon problem of Diamond and Pearl. While in Diamond and Pearl, there were only 2 Fire Type Pokemon Lines (1 being the starter), there’s now a grand total of 5. While it’s still not a lot, it allows for at least some variety, and it also allows Flint to finally have a full team of fire types. The second problem that’s solved with this is that it basically allows all of the Sinnoh Pokemon to be obtained before postgame. In Diamond and Pearl, there were many new evolutions that were locked behind postgame. In Platinum however, they were incorporated into the region itself, which I think was a great change.
Platinum also just adds some things that greatly flesh out Sinnoh as well. There’s a bunch of aesthetic changes to Sinnoh, adding snow to areas like Twinleaf Town, or advancing lighting to multiple caves, and especially Eterna Forest. It simply makes Sinnoh just that more beautiful. It also gives more to the story, giving Cyrus and Team Galactic more spotlight in the story, which allows them to be further developed. Cyrus especially was not a strong villain in base Diamond and Pearl. Characters like Charon and Looker add to the story as well, which is really nice.
For this playthrough of Platinum, I focused on creating a team that used primarily Pokemon added with the Platinum Dex. My team here was Empoleon, Garchomp, Gliscor, Gallade, Leafeon, and Magnezone. It was honestly a really challenging time all things considered! I didn’t have a second party member until after the second gym, which meant that Gardenia was one of the more challenging gyms. After that, the game became notably easier, though not every Pokemon is perfect. All of the other Pokemon were really powerful, but only Garchomp and Gliscor didn’t have any downsides. Gallade was powerful, but it felt very frail, Leafeon lacked any good grass type moves, and Magnezone suffered from a big ground type weakness. Genuinely one of the hardest fights I had to deal with was the final Cyrus fight, most of my Pokemon weren’t good against his Gyarados, and my Magnezone was always destroyed by a single earthquake. Cynthia wasn’t too brutal though, but that’s likely because they slightly lowered the level of her Pokemon.
Either way though, Pokemon Platinum just improves on practically every aspect of Diamond and Pearl. Because of this, Platinum is absolutely the perfected version of Sinnoh, and it makes for an amazing game to play through. I’m glad I finally got around to replaying Platinum after all this time. I’ve been slowly going through all of the major Pokemon titles, and this was one of the few I knew to save for last. It’s been so satisfying to get to Platinum, as I no doubt believe it’s one of the best Pokemon games ever to exist.
